The Poway City Council has unanimously green-lit new traffic calming measures for Midland Road, in light of local resident concerns and a petition. This decision comes off the back of a Traffic Safety Committee-led proposal and follows an August presentation of final recommendations stemming from an early-year engineering study, as shared in an official statement on Poway.org.
Strategically centered around four sections of Midland Road from Putney Road to Norwalk Street, the planned upgrades aim to directly address ongoing pedestrian safety issues. These measures include enhanced visibility for road signs, pedestrian-activated flashing signs, solar-powered vehicle speed feedback signs, and moreover enforcement tactics to curb speed-related problems. A one-year evaluation is also planned.
Drilling down to the goals, Councilmember Caylin Frank mentioned during the meeting that further discourse might be necessarily structured around outcomes: "There may be more to the conversation if we’re not hitting the targets, but this provides a necessary starting point to gauge community response," she added.
Addressing the clamor to lower speed limits, it’s critical to take note that it's not legally plausible to enforce a speed limit below the state-approved level, derived from the 85th percentile of traffic study speeds. However, a glimmer of hope arises from Mayor Steve Vaus' proposal of a forthcoming law enabling Poway to potentially reduce speed limits below the state's mandate within residential and business zones, an idea to explore during the evaluation phase.
